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Political animals
In the last few years the animal rights movement has grown out of all recognition. It's now an important political force that challenges our definition of the political
Raised serum transaminases during treatment with pegylated interferon for chronic hepatiti C
Introduction : Serum transaminases rose significantly in 7 patients with chronic hepatitis C, genotypes 2 and 3, who were treated with pegylated interferon and ribavirin.
Methods : 219 patients with chronic hepatitis C, genotypes 2 and 3, were treated between 2005 and 2011 following the same protocol. For the 7 patients presented in this paper, the initial liver screen revealed chronic hepatitis C infection only. The same liver screen was repeated following the transaminase rise during the treatment period and failed to reveal additional comorbidity.
Results : 5 male and 2 female patients with chronic hepatitis C experienced a rise in serum transaminases after commencement on treatment with pegylated interferon and ribavirin. They all achieved rapid and end of treatment virological responses. 3 of the patients achieved sustained virological response and 4 relapsed. There was no evidence to suggest that steatosis, development of autoimmunity or intercurrent illness was the cause of the liver injury. In 3 out of 7 patients, the level of transaminases exhibited a downward trend after pegylated interferon was changed to non pegylated interferon. Additionally, it is evident that in those patients whose treatment was temporarily or permanently aborted, the rise in transaminases rapidly improved and returned to baseline.
Conclusion : Our experience suggests the possibility of a toxic reaction to polyethylene glycol in a small number of patients being treated with pegylated interferon, resulting in an acute hepatitic response which resolved when therapy was stopped or switched to non-pegylated interferon
Far-flung Filaments of Ejecta in the Young Supernova Remnant G292.0+1.8
New optical images of the young SNR G292.0+1.8, obtained from the 0.9-m
telescope at CTIO, show a more extensive network of filaments than had been
known previously. Filaments emitting in [O III] are distributed throughout much
of the 8 arcmin diameter shell seen in X-ray and radio images, including a few
at the very outermost shell limits. We have also detected four small complexes
of filaments that show [S II] emission along with [OIII]. In a single long-slit
spectrum we find variations of almost an order of magnitude in the relative
strengths of oxygen and sulfur lines, which must result from abundance
variations. None of the filaments, with or without [S II], shows any evidence
for hydrogen, so all appear to be fragments of pure SN ejecta. The [S II]
filaments provide the first evidence for undiluted products of oxygen burning
in the ejecta from the supernova that gave rise to G292.0+1.8. Some oxygen
burning must have occurred, but the paucity of [S II]-emitting filaments
suggests that either the oxygen burning was not extensive or that most of its
products have yet to be excited. Most of the outer filaments exhibit radial,
pencil-like morphologies that suggest an origin as Rayleigh-Taylor fingers of
ejecta, perhaps formed during the explosion. Simulations of core-collapse
supernovae predict such fingers, but these have never before been so clearly
observed in a young SNR. The total flux from the SNR in [OIII] 5007 is 5.4 *
10**-12 ergs/cm**2/s. Using a distance of 6 kpc and an extinction correction
corresponding to E(B-V) = 0.6 (lower than previous values but more consistent
both with our data and radio and X-ray estimates of NH), this leads to a
luminosity of 1.6 * 10**35 ergs/s in the 5007 Ang. line.Comment: 32 pages including 10 figures, and 3 tables, accepted for publication
in AJ. Vol 132, July 2006. Higher resolution versions of the figures and a
pdf of the manuscript can be found at
http://www-int.stsci.edu/~long/papers/g292_optical
An investigation into the effect of thickness of titanium dioxide and gold-silver nanoparticle titanium dioxide composite thin-films on photocatalytic activity and photo-induced oxygen production in a sacrificial system
Thin films of titanium dioxide and titanium dioxide with incorporated gold and silver nanoparticles were deposited onto glass microscope slides, steel and titanium foil coupons by two sol–gel dip-coating methods. The film's photocatalytic activity and ability to evolve oxygen in a sacrificial solution were assessed. It was found that photocatalytic activity increased with film thickness (from 50 to 500 nm thick samples) for the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue in solution and resazurin redox dye in an intelligent ink dye deposited on the surface. Contrastingly, an optimum film thickness of [similar]200 nm for both composite and pure films of titanium dioxide was found for water oxidation, using persulfate (S2O82−) as a sacrificial electron acceptor. The nanoparticle composite films showed significantly higher activity in oxygen evolution studies compared with plain TiO2 films
Strongly Enhanced Hole-Phonon Coupling in the Metallic State of the Dilute Two-Dimensional Hole Gas
We have studied the temperature dependent phonon emission rate () of a
strongly interacting (22) dilute 2D GaAs hole system using a standard
carrier heating technique. In the still poorly understood metallic state, we
observe that () changes from () to ()
above 100mK, indicating a crossover from screened piezoelectric(PZ) coupling to
screened deformation potential(DP) coupling for hole-phonon scattering.
Quantitative comparison with theory shows that the long range PZ coupling
between holes and phonons has the expected magnitude; however, in the metallic
state, the short range DP coupling between holes and phonons is {\it almost
twenty times stronger} than expected from theory. The density dependence of
() shows that it is {\it easier} to cool low density 2D holes in GaAs
than higher density 2D hole systems.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Quantum ratchet transport with minimal dispersion rate
We analyze the performance of quantum ratchets by considering the dynamics of
an initially localized wave packet loaded into a flashing periodic potential.
The directed center-of-mass motion can be initiated by the uniform modulation
of the potential height, provided that the modulation protocol breaks all
relevant time- and spatial reflection symmetries. A poor performance of quantum
ratchet transport is characterized by a slow net motion and a fast diffusive
spreading of the wave packet, while the desirable optimal performance is the
contrary. By invoking a quantum analog of the classical P\'eclet number, namely
the quotient of the group velocity and the dispersion of the propagating wave
packet, we calibrate the transport properties of flashing quantum ratchets and
discuss the mechanisms that yield low-dispersive directed transport.Comment: 6 pages; 3 figures; 1 tabl
Temperature and Magnetic Field Enhanced Hall Slope of a Dilute 2D Hole System in the Ballistic Regime
We report the temperature() and perpendicular magnetic field()
dependence of the Hall resistivity of dilute metallic
two-dimensional(2D) holes in GaAs over a broad range of
temperature(0.02-1.25K). The low Hall coefficient, , is found to be
enhanced when decreases. Strong magnetic fields further enhance the slope
of at all temperatures studied. Coulomb interaction corrections
of a Fermi liquid(FL) in the ballistic regime can not explain the enhancement
of which occurs in the same regime as the anomalous metallic
longitudinal conductivity. In particular, although the metallic conductivity in
2D systems has been attributed to electron interactions in a FL, these same
interactions should reduce, {\it not enhance} the slope of as
decreases and/or increases.Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter
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